AUBURN - Some of the toughest teams in the country will await the Auburn swimming & diving team as the Tigers will wrap up the fall portion of their season this weekend at the Georgia Fall Invitational in Athens, Ga. The meet runs Friday-Sunday at the Gabrielsen Natatorium.

"We're excited to get back to racing after a long month of training," Auburn Head Coach Brett Hawke said. "This will be a real test and our first preview of a championship meet this year. The team has been working really hard over the last month since we last had a meet, and I'm looking forward to seeing where we are as a team heading into championship season. We'll be facing some stiff competition with Cal, Texas and Georgia, among others, and we're hopeful that we'll see some breakout performances from several of our athletes."

The Tigers are back in action this weekend for the first time in nearly a month; their last meet was Nov. 2 at Kentucky. Auburn enters the weekend unbeaten in dual meet competition on the season with the men boasting a 3-0 record - all in SEC competition - while the Tiger women are 4-0 overall, 3-0 in league meets.

Nine teams in all will take part in this weekend's meet, including the defending national champion and runner-up from last season's men's and women's NCAA Championships. California is the reigning men's and women's national champion, while Georgia's women and Texas' men were the runners-up at their respective NCAA meets. Auburn was a top-10 finisher at both meets last year with the men taking sixth-place and the women tying for seventh, and the Texas women took a ninth-place NCAA finish last year.

Virginia, Virginia Tech and Penn State give the invitational seven top-25 teams from the 2012 NCAA Championships, and Harvard and UCLA round out the field.

Auburn's men are the defending champions of the Georgia Fall Invitational, scoring 899 points to outpace No. 1 California (812) and Georgia (656). The women finished third at last year's meet with 594 points with then-No. 1 Georgia taking the title (995) and Cal earning runner-up honors (745.5).

This weekend's meet will follow the three-day championship format used at the NCAA Championships. Prelims will begin each day at 8:30 a.m. CT with finals getting underway at 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday and at 2 p.m. Sunday. Live results will be available via GeorgiaDogs.com, and fans can follow @AuburnSwimming on Twitter for updates throughout the weekend.